The humble Post-It note has emerged as an unlikely veil for bureaucrats to avoid scrutiny.

It appears that a simple Post-It can help the Australian Public Service avoid unwanted Parliamentary criticism and Freedom of Information laws.

The small bits of mildly-adhesive yellow stationary allow public servants to fulfil their record-keeping obligations, but are known to accidentally “fall off” official records containing information that could be embarrassing.

The public sector’s fickle record-keeping skills were thrown into the spotlight last week when a very senior public servant told a Senate Committee that his notes of a highly politically-sensitive meeting had disappeared.

Opposition and Greens senators wanted to see the file notes kept by Attorney General's Department Secretary Chris Moraitis.

But they were disappointed when Moraitis told them the document - detailing a meeting with Human Rights Commission Chief Gillian Triggs - had been in a briefcase that was now missing.

Former APS insiders later told Fairfax Media that the requirement to keep notes are often “observed” by sticking relevant information on Post-It notes attached to the file.

“The benefit of a Post-it note is that it can fall off a folio in a file whenever you want it to fall off,” one insider said.

“It's not FOI-able then, there's no form of record.

“Somebody might say; ‘I'm sure I saw a Post-It note on that file’, but if it can't be found, if it's not there, then it doesn't exist.”

Fairfax says one former mandarin told reporters that formal note-keeping - as mandated by The Archives Act - was often used in the interest of self-preservation.

“If you want to cover your arse, if you want to make sure that it's your version of that meeting, of that phone conversation is recorded, that's when you make sure that you open that note,” the source said.

But a current DFAT spokesperson said there was none of this going on today.

“The department keeps records of significant business related activities.

“Records can be in many formats as long as they meet the criteria of significant business activities.”